Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 6 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: A Single Answer Guided by Madness ~Lily’s POV~

And so, I woke up.

“Ugh... Gah...”

I groaned. My consciousness was hazy. I felt sick. I remembered this sensation. Yes...this was what it felt like for something to destroy my mimicked brain and knock me out.

“Oh, you’re awake, Miho.”

I jolted up to my feet at the sudden voice—well, I tried to, at least, but I lost my balance.

“Wha—?!”

Hard metal clanked together. I couldn’t move my arms for some reason. My movements were restricted in a way I had never imagined possible, causing me to tumble over.

“Whoa there.”

The moment before I fell, someone caught me in their arms.

“Hey now, be careful. I do mean to protect you, Miho, but the worst can still happen.”

The voice came from a boy. His tone was filled with consideration. He sat me down on the ground, still holding me in his arms.

“Ummm...” I was confused by the sudden turn of events. The first thing that came to mind was to thank him for catching me, a perfectly commonplace reaction. “Th-Tha...” However, the words wouldn’t come out. “What...the...?”

I realized a chain encircled my whole body. I reflexively strengthened and strained my arms. The chain links ground with a shriek, scraping against each other, but they didn’t break. They didn’t bend. They didn’t even slacken.

“Th-Then how about this!”

I decided to undo my mimicry and return to the form of a slime to escape this irritating bondage. But I couldn’t.

“Wh-Why?”

For some reason, I couldn’t do something that was as natural as breathing to me. That was when I finally realized.

“Are these chains...magic?”

They were likely used to restrain and weaken their target. Thinking back on it, I’d felt strangely lethargic when I tried to break the chains. I turned pale. I realized I was nothing more than a little girl now. I hesitantly directed my gaze to the person behind all this.

“You’re...” I started.

“Hm? What’s wrong, Miho?”

A boy wearing a tattered school uniform looked down at me. At a glance, he looked like a delinquent, but he wasn’t really dirty or anything. His uniform was clean despite its shabby state, and the sword hanging from his waist was clearly valuable. His outfit was just mismatched. Judging by the mantle currently spread out beneath me, he normally wore one over his ragged clothes.

“What’s with the weird face? Don’t tell me you forgot about me,” the boy said playfully.

I did recognize him. To be precise, I knew this boy through Mizushima Miho’s memories.

“Takaya...Jun...”

He was Mizushima Miho’s childhood friend, a warrior among the cheaters. The boy who’d traveled through the forest all on his own, reaching Fort Ebenus just so that he could seek help from the first expeditionary force, was for some reason right in front of me.

“Takaya, why...are you...?”

“Come on, Miho. No need to treat me like a stranger,” he said, scratching his cheek. “Just call me Jun, like you always did.”

There was no way I would. I honestly couldn’t understand the situation. The haziness clouding my thoughts was gone now, but all I could remember was walking through the mountains and reuniting with my master. I couldn’t recall anything after that. When I woke up, I’d found myself restrained here. What had happened? More importantly, was my master still safe?

“Oh! Are you maybe angry that I left you all alone in that hut?” Takaya said, showing no signs of noticing my confusion. “I’m sorry for making you feel so uneasy. I did try my best, just so you know.”

It sounded like he found this conversation enjoyable. There was a slight pout behind his affectionate tone. It was like he couldn’t even see me bound in chains right in front of him.

I had no idea what was going on. Judging from his reactions, his statements, and his attitude, maybe he had no idea I wasn’t Mizushima Miho? If so...maybe I had a chance. I gulped. If I handled this well, I could gather information on what had happened since I passed out. I suppressed my unease and opened my dry lips.

“Can I ask you something?” I said.

“Sure. What?”

Takaya cocked his head and smiled. He looked happy just to hear me speak to him. In that instant, I lost the words I was trying to say.

“Ask me anything you want, Miho,” he said warmly.

None of this warmth was directed at me. It was directed at a girl who didn’t exist anymore. The happier he was, the more fun he was having, the emptier his emotions felt to me, knowing that the one they were meant for was gone. It prevented me from speaking.

“Miho?”

His curious voice brought me back to my senses. This wasn’t the time to be thinking of unnecessary things. There was much I had to verify right now. I had to focus on what was in front of me. Thus, I shook off such idle thoughts and took action.

“Why am I here?” I asked.

“Oh. That? Well, I guess you’d wonder about that, huh?” Takaya Jun replied, his smile ever unchanging. “I did stab you right in the head and all.”

“Wha—?!”

His nonchalant criminal confession had me at a complete loss.

“Did it hurt? Sorry. It didn’t seem like you’d pass out as you are now unless I went that far.”

The first thing that had come into sight when I woke up was Takaya Jun. Just by that fact, he was definitely the culprit who’d put me in these restraints, or he was working with the one who’d done it. Also, the fact that a mimic slime like me had been knocked out meant that I’d probably suffered enough damage that maintaining my consciousness was no longer possible.

Frankly speaking, it would mean that Takaya Jun had attacked me. However, I suspected he’d used some sort of magic tool or something instead. The deep affection in his voice convinced me of that for a moment.

“You know?” I asked, still totally confused.

“Of course I do,” he answered casually. “Miho, you were eaten by a slime. Meaning your body right now is that slime itself.”

I continued staring at the boy before me, unable to utter a single word. He knew that Mizushima Miho had died, that I’d taken her corpse within me, and that I was a monster borrowing her form. He knew everything, yet he still treated me like Mizushima Miho. Something was clearly wrong with him. He was broken. How did he end up like this?

There wasn’t much need to ask that question. I could understand it better than anyone else in the world, after all. I had the deceased Mizushima Miho’s memories within me. Her time spent with her childhood friend Takaya Jun was naturally among them.

The album of her memories had deteriorated greatly because of the limits of my mimicry. The borders between colors were blurred, and several pages had been torn out. Regardless, I knew Mizushima Miho liked her childhood friend Takaya Jun. Her sweet feelings were different from wanting to embrace him after he grew up into a fine man. However, there was a special affection in there toward someone she had known ever since she was a child.

In my opinion, Mizushima Miho was a clever girl. She’d perceived Takaya Jun’s faint feelings as a mix of his affection toward a childhood friend and his adoration of an older woman. That he’d never confessed was proof, in a sense, that she was correct. His first love wasn’t strong enough to risk his relationship with her as his childhood friend. If the two of them had been able to continue their lives like that, perhaps it would’ve turned into a bittersweet first love one day.

But that never came to be. Their futures had been twisted by being teleported to this world, along with many others. They could never return home. They could never see their families again. That was to say nothing of how they didn’t even know whether they would be able to see the next sunrise, what with the constant threat of monsters.

Everything was so extreme that anyone and everyone had been driven into a corner. This also applied to Takaya Jun. The boy in Mizushima Miho’s memories was childish and mischievous; he had a young and tender heart. In the end, he yearned for his fleeting first love as a way of supporting his mind. Mizushima Miho had never said a thing, even though she’d noticed this change in him. The clever girl understood that she needed to keep quiet for his sake.

He could keep trying his best so long as it was for her sake. That was the only way he could maintain his sanity. It was precisely because of this drive to do something for a loved one that Takaya Jun had managed to endure the loneliness and pain of crossing the Woodlands alone. That was also why, when faced with the tragic death of Mizushima Miho, his mind had quickly lost everything that had been supporting it. His eyes could only see what he wanted them to see now.

“I won’t hand you over to anyone. Never again,” Takaya muttered as if speaking to himself. There was a dark passion to his voice. “Be happy, Miho. I now possess the power to make that so.”

The sword at Takaya’s waist clinked. That was when I first sensed the faint smell of iron. Normally, I would’ve noticed this right away with my mimicked firefang’s sense of smell. This was the stench of bloodstains and innards. I turned around and gasped.

“What...? No way...?”

A small distance away, I saw what could only be described as a field of bodies and blood. Monster corpses lay scattered across the ground. There were dozens of them. There were monsters in the Kitrus Mountains, seeing how far it was from any human settlements, but this many in one place seemed abnormal. As far as I could tell, Takaya Jun didn’t have any noticeable injuries. This was strange, even for a warrior like him. Maybe it’s that sword... If it’s some kind of special magic weapon, it might be possible...

“I got stronger,” Takaya Jun said as I turned back toward him. His smile contained both warmth for a single person and inhuman coldness for everything else. “So you can relax now, Miho. No matter who comes, I won’t hand you over.” There was a bloodlust in his voice that sent chills down my spine.

My master is in danger! That was the first thought that came to mind. The recent battle with the Skanda had hampered much of my master’s combat potential. Nevertheless, he was sure to chase after me, grasping at whatever prospect of victory he could find.

However, if he couldn’t properly estimate Takaya Jun’s strength, victory would be wholly overturned. For example, if my master didn’t know about that sword, it was highly likely Takaya Jun would strike him down. I couldn’t possibly allow that to happen.

“Wait a moment, Takaya Jun,” I said, glaring at the smiling boy. “I’m not Mizushima Miho. I’m Majima Takahiro’s first servant, the mimic slime Lily. Your childhood friend is already dead.”

I was well aware of how dangerous this statement was. I didn’t know if I could get Takaya to admit that Mizushima Miho was dead. Even if I could, he would realize that I was the monster who’d stolen his precious Miho’s form. Nothing he did to me as a result would be unexpected.

Even disregarding that, with Takaya’s current emotional state, there was no telling what would set off his fuse and cause him to explode. If I were only thinking about my own safety, this would be a careless statement to make. However, this was far, far better than exposing my master to danger.

“Dead? Miho?”

Takaya’s smile vanished. He stared at me fixedly. His emotionless stare sent goose bumps down my skin, but I didn’t care.

“Yes,” I answered. “Mizushima Miho is no longer here. No matter how much you hope to protect her, you can’t.”

Never again. Not for all eternity. Takaya Jun was never to be rewarded. What did he feel thanks to this cruel reality? Or what did he not feel? This moment of silence felt terribly long, but in truth, it had only lasted ten seconds at most.

“You’re right... Miho is already dead,” Takaya uttered. “You’re a monster who ate her corpse.”

His voice was hollow, and it made my blood run cold. The moment Mizushima Miho vanished from his mind, he would sever my head. I was sure of it.

“So what?” he said.

This was not the proclamation of death I’d resolved myself for. Having said that, it wasn’t like I hadn’t gotten through to him at all.

“You’re Miho, remember?”

“What...?”

I looked up at Takaya, baffled by his words. He was smiling again. There was unconditional affection in his gaze. His conviction was so pure that I could easily see it.

“Aah...”

I let out my breath, almost as if I were screaming, yet with no voice. In that instant, for the very first time, I didn’t regard this boy’s madness with sadness or pity. All I could feel was fear.

“No matter what form you take, I can tell.”

Though my figure was reflected in his eyes, he wasn’t focused on my existence. This didn’t mean he was blind to the truth, though. Because he had the eyes of a madman, only seeing what he wanted to see, he could perceive things that weren’t normally visible. Takaya Jun definitely saw my true nature, deep within my being.

“Dead? Eaten? So what? Miho is right here. I know that.”

“Y-You’re wrong. I’m...”

“You deny it? Then try answering me. If Miho isn’t here, then what is?”

Takaya Jun’s question was simple. However, after I heard it, my lips unexpectedly froze. What was I, exactly? That question stabbed at the true nature of my being far more than I’d expected it to.

◆ ◆ ◆

My ability as a mimic slime allowed me to reproduce everything about my target. Regardless of the degradation that came with it, this was akin to pillaging my target’s very existence. My master had placed a restriction on me eating beings with wills. That was because it also encroached on my own being.

However, a certain doubt came to mind. What exactly was I, and what were these other personalities encroaching on in this process? I’d already eaten someone with a will—Mizushima Miho. Her influence over me could be seen everywhere.

For example, I’d always prepared my master’s meals. Rose always had a mountain of other things to make, and back when we didn’t trust Katou, we couldn’t possibly have left the cooking to her. However, even after we left the Woodlands and entered the human world, I still continued to cook during our journey. That was because I wanted to feed my master delicious food. It was also because I found cooking fun. So where exactly did this feminine sensibility come from?

There were other examples too, like that conversation we had immediately before Iino Yuna’s attack. My master had been worried about me because Gerbera was showing him affection. He didn’t need to be. I’d told him we servants didn’t understand such things. To us, our master was everyone’s master. I could understand what had him worried, but still, I didn’t think he should pick a single partner.

However, this also meant that while I understood this as a servant, I was the only one who also understood our master’s philosophy on love. This definitely came from the portion of Mizushima Miho in me. If so, where was I in there? What was I to begin with?

I don’t get it. I don’t understand what I am at all...

◆ ◆ ◆

“Looks like break time is over...” Takaya Jun groaned.

Just as I realized he had been speaking, he hefted me up under his arm.

“Hyah!”

“I thought you’d chase us. I’m not handing Miho over.”

I reflexively closed my eyes and heard Takaya Jun’s voice filled with naked hostility. When I opened them once more, my sight fell over a scene playing out across the field of monster corpses.

“Ah...”

There was a two-headed wolf, and riding atop it was a boy covered in dirt and blood.

“I’m going to take Lily back,” the boy declared with a sharp glare. For just one instant, his eyes softened as they caught my figure.

“Master...”

My trembling lips and heart called out to the boy I loved.